Egg (band)

See also The Egg (band) for the electronic dance music band formed in the 1990s.

Egg were an English progressive rock band formed in January 1969.

Career

The founding members of the group were Dave Stewart who played organ (not to be confused with guitarist David A. Stewart of Eurythmics), Mont Campbell on bass and vocals and drummer Clive Brooks. The band emerged from an earlier quartet formed whilst at City of London School called Uriel with guitarist Steve Hillage. After Hillage left the band in August 1968, the other three continued as a trio. Having signed a deal with the Middle Earth club's management branch, they were advised to change their name to Egg, allegedly because Uriel "sounded too much like 'urinal'". In mid 1969 the band signed a deal with Decca's 'progressive' music subsidiary Deram and released their debut album in March 1970 on their short-lived Nova series.

While not a commercial success, it was received well enough for the label to finance the recording of a follow-up, but when the time came to release it, they got cold feet and it was all but shelved, until producer Neil Slaven's lobbying finally resulted in The Polite Force coming out in February 1971. Now signed to The Groundhogs' management company, Egg finished the year with an increased touring schedule, but in spite of accumulating enough material for a third album, were unable to secure another record deal, and called it a day in July 1972.

In 1974, Stewart, now signed with Virgin as a member of Hatfield and the North, got a deal for Egg to record their unreleased material, which resulted in the farewell album The Civil Surface.

In December 2007 an archival release of live recordings 1969-1972, titled The Metronomical Society was added to the canon.

Egg are often regarded as part of the Canterbury scene, a loose movement of progressive and psychedelic musicians, based on Stewart's later membership of Hatfield and the North and National Health, although the band have no geographical connection to Canterbury. Their music can be described as progressive rock with elements of psychedelia and chamber rock (later exemplified by the Rock In Opposition movement). They employed unusual time signatures, as reflected in songs like 'Seven Is A Jolly Good Time'. They also brought a humorous element to their music. Mont Campbell, the band's main composer, acknowledged the strong influence of Igor Stravinsky, resulting in multi-part suites such as the imaginatively-titled "Symphony n°2" and "Long Piece n°3".

Campbell was also initially involved with Stewart in National Health. In 1981 Stewart teamed up with Colin Blunstone to record the UK No. 13 hit covering of What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted, originally made famous by Jimmy Ruffin. Later that year he had a UK No. 1 hit with former Hatfield and the North backing singer Barbara Gaskin covering Lesley Gore's Its My Party (and I'll Cry if I Want To). The latter partnership continues.

Two members of the band worked together again on Campbell's solo release Music From a Round Tower of 1996. All tracks were composed/performed by Campbell (who by this time had become an expert on many ethnic instruments) and Stewart co-produced and made incidental musical contributions (as did Barbara Gaskin).

In January 2009, Campbell appeared on British television as a prominent commentator throughout the BBC documentary 'Prog Rock Britannia: An Observation in Three Movements', reminiscing on Egg and the progressive rock movement in general.

Arzachel

In mid-1969, to capitalise on the psychedelic rock market, Stewart, Campbell and Brooks contributed to the one-off studio project Arzachel, named after a moon crater. Also featured in that project was Steve Hillage (on summer holiday from university), who'd also been a member of the pre-Egg band Uriel. Egg were by that time under contract to Decca, therefore all credited with pseudonyms.

Discography

Original albums

• Egg (1970)
• The Polite Force (1971)
• The Civil Surface (1974)

Compilation albums

• Seven Is a Jolly Good Time (1985)
• The Metronomical Society (2007)

See also

• List of rock instrumentals

External links

• Calyx Egg page
• Egg Archive